Earlier this week, a great friend of mine was subjected to negative comments on social media. The reason some cited was that she was a “phony” — because she always seemed so upbeat. As I posted, it struck me that we never say a negative person is a phony. That critique seems reserved for those who choose to express an optimistic attitude.
However, my experience and research has taught me that in the quest for distinction within any organization, one vital component resonates at the core of success: a positive attitude. A company with a culture infused with optimism doesn’t just thrive, it stands out. Here are six reasons why this essential aspect is pivotal in creating a distinctive business culture, no matter the size of your company.
1. Unleashing Potential
A positive attitude unshackles potential. It energizes, motivates, and inspires employees to transcend the ordinary. It’s about seeing challenges not as roadblocks, but as gateways to creativity and innovation. A culture of positivity instills a sense of purpose, propelling an organization towards distinction.
2. Strengthening the Customer Experience
As someone who has extensively studied, written, and spoken about organizational distinction and customer experience, I firmly believe that positivity is integral to delivering the Ultimate Customer Experience®. When positivity permeates a company, it’s felt by every customer. It translates to engaged employees, superior service, and ultimately, customer loyalty. The connection between a positive attitude and customer experience isn’t just theoretical – it’s proven, tangible, and transformative.
3. Cultivating Collaboration
Positive attitudes foster an environment of collaboration and inclusiveness. Diversity and unity thrive in an optimistic setting. Team members feel valued and respected, leading to stronger collaboration. This creates a synergy where the collective wisdom transcends individual capabilities.
4. Building Resilience
In the ever-changing global business landscape, resilience is a prized attribute. My friend, speaker, author, and someone who has conquered physical disabilities, Roger Crawford always states that a positive attitude equips an organization with the flexibility to adapt and the strength to endure. It breeds a culture where failure is seen not as a dead end but as a lesson learned, a stepping stone towards success and distinction.
5. Enhancing Profitability
Numerous studies from respected sources affirm that companies fostering a positive culture enjoy higher levels of productivity and profitability. Gallup, for instance, found that companies with engaged employees outperform others by 202%. A positive attitude is not just a moral booster; it’s a strategic business tool.
6. Becoming Iconic
As I’ve highlighted in my book, “ICONIC,” becoming an iconic organization requires commitment, effort, and a clear vision. A positive attitude is the fuel that powers this journey. It’s the beacon that guides a company from mediocrity to greatness.
The Positive Path to Distinction
Creating distinction is not about mere survival; it’s about standing out and thriving. It’s about embracing a positive attitude that sets the tone for excellence in every facet of the organization.
A positive attitude is not a by-product of success; it’s the foundational element. It’s what separates the good from the great, the ordinary from the extraordinary.
A positive attitude is not just the cornerstone of a distinctive company culture. It’s the heartbeat, the lifeblood, and the soul.
It’s not about being phony and it’s more than a business strategy; a commitment to a positive approach is a philosophy that resonates with human potential and aspirations. By nurturing a culture of positivity, we pave the way for distinction, innovation, and growth.
Ask yourself who you would rather deal with as a customer or a colleague at work: someone who acts as if they have a positive attitude about your business…or a sincere jerk who doesn’t care about how you’re treated?
In the ever-evolving landscape of today’s business world, titles and roles frequently change to reflect the dynamism of the marketplace. However, my friend, Jack Miller, the General Manager of the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, has taken a step that resonates far beyond mere semantics. He has rebranded himself as the “Chief Inspiration Officer.”
I wrote extensively about Jack and the Scottsdale Princess in my book, “ICONIC,” as a shining example of distinction. Jack is a leader who understands what it takes to be not just the best IN the world but the best FOR the world. This latest move is a profound testament to his commitment to leadership that inspires.
Leading Through Inspiration
The traditional view of leadership often involves guiding, directing, and managing. For some, it may even (unfortunately) mean ordering and dominating. But the truly transformative leaders are those who inspire. Inspiration fuels passion, sparks creativity, and nurtures the courage to innovate and take risks.
The Chief Inspiration Officer
Jack Miller’s title change is more than a novel moniker to which other leaders should aspire. It symbolizes a shift in focus from managing to actively inspiring a team. This isn’t about overseeing operations and finances; it’s about creating a culture where every team member feels driven to excel and contribute their best.
As the Chief Inspiration Officer, Jack embodies a leadership style that motivates his team through shared vision, purpose, and enthusiasm. He recognizes that his role is not just to tell people what to do but to help them discover why they do it and what they can achieve while simultaneously delivering an Ultimate Customer Experience.®
A Culture of Inspiration
This shift in leadership perspective fosters a culture where inspiration infuses every level of the organization. It encourages employees to think creatively and to strive for more than just meeting quotas or targets. It creates an environment where innovation thrives, and success is measured not merely by numbers but by the positive impact and distinctive contributions made.
When my favorite bartender, Jaimie Werling, announced he was moving from Indianapolis to Scottsdale, I suggested he contact the Fairmont. He’s now been there for several years – and tells me constantly that he continues to be inspired by Jack and his fellow leadership team. This resort attracts the best – like Jaimie – because they inspire.
The Ripple Effect
When a leader like Jack Miller emphasizes inspiration, it sets a precedent that extends beyond his immediate team. It conveys to the entire industry that leadership is not about maintaining the status quo. It’s about challenging it, growing, and constantly finding new ways to stand out and create distinction.
The Takeaway: Be the Best FOR the World
Jack Miller’s evolution from General Manager to Chief Inspiration Officer is more than just an interesting anecdote. It’s a lesson in how leadership can—and should—evolve to meet the unique challenges of today’s world.
If we want to lead teams that are not just efficient but exceptional, not just productive but passionate, we must lead through inspiration.
Jack’s example serves as a beacon for any leader aspiring to create distinction within their team or organization. It’s a reminder that titles and roles are flexible, but the core principles of leadership remain. Leaders inspire, elevate, and bring out the best in those around them.
May we all strive to be Chief Inspiration Officers in our respective fields, for it is the path to true distinction and enduring success.
Look, I realize that I’m prejudiced. However, I genuinely believe that in today’s world, the customer experience is everything.
Customers, whether B2B or B2C, expect to be treated with respect, courtesy, and efficiency when interacting with your organization. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.
Many companies fail to deliver the Ultimate Customer Experience®, leaving customers frustrated and unsatisfied. Let’s examine three reasons why the consumer experience in so many enterprises is so terrible.
Lack of Training
Lack of training is one of the primary reasons why the consumer experience of so many enterprises is terrible. The majority of companies do not devote enough time or money in educating their employees to provide the type of customer service that generates repeat and referral business. Training is necessary for employees to learn how to effectively manage difficult consumers and resolve issues. Failure to do so results in lengthy wait times, incorrect orders, and an overall negative consumer experience. When employees lack the skills and knowledge necessary to provide a positive customer experience, the company suffers.
Training should be continuous and consistent, as well as tailored to the specific requirements of the organization and its customers. It is not nearly enough to conduct a single training session and then forget about it. Regular updates and feedback should be provided to employees to develop their skills and ensure customer satisfaction.
“No organization would invest in an activity—or ask their employees to invest in an activity—in which they had little interest! Just as you wouldn’t buy season tickets to the games of a sports team you didn’t care about, or you wouldn’t watch every episode of a television show you didn’t enjoy, your company would not have given you this book if they weren’t interested in this content and focused on your important role in enhancing customer experience.”
Unfortunately, it is often the case that companies who claim to be “all in” on the customer experience are not. If they were, they would properly invest in the training and education that ensures their frontline teams can deliver what their marketing promises.
Inadequate Communication
Inadequate communication is another reason why the consumer experience of so many businesses is so poor. When customers have questions or concerns, they want to be able to communicate with the business easily and quickly. However, many businesses do not provide adequate communication channels for their customers. This can result in frustration and discontent as customers can feel ignored and insignificant.
Effective communication is crucial for a positive customer experience. Businesses should provide multiple channels for customers to communicate, such as email, phone, and chat. Customers should be able to reach the business easily and receive a prompt response. Additionally, part of the previously mentioned training should include effective communication skills, such as active listening and clarity in communication. This will improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Lack of Empathy
A lack of empathy is the third reason the customer experience is so awful from so many businesses. It’s one of the five steps to an Ultimate Customer Experience from my forthcoming book.
Employees who lack empathy may not be able to relate to their customers’ concerns or emotions. This can lead to a lack of understanding and a failure to provide the level of service that customers expect. Customers want to feel heard and understood, and when businesses fail to provide this, they are likely to lose customers.
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. It is essential for employees to have empathy when interacting with customers. This means actively listening to their concerns, showing understanding and compassion, and taking action to resolve issues. Businesses should foster a culture of empathy and understanding, starting with hiring employees who possess these qualities. Additionally, businesses should provide ongoing training to reinforce empathy and customer service skills.
The Ultimate Customer Experience® is essential to the success of any business. Unfortunately, many businesses fail to provide it, leaving their customers feeling frustrated and dissatisfied. When businesses prioritize the customer experience, they will see increased customer engagement, loyalty, and, ultimately, success.
In my first business book, “ALL Business is Show Business,” I wrote about the importance of emotion in creating and delivering the Ultimate Customer Experience.®
Emotions are powerful drivers of behavior–and they have been since the beginning of time. It seems that we’re hardwired to feel certain ways when we encounter certain stimuli: we feel happy when we see beauty; we become sad when someone close passes away; angry when someone does something unfair or wrong; and fear activates our fight-or-flight response when faced with danger.
When you think about it, emotions are what causes customers to fall in love with your product or service — and emotions keep them coming back time and again.
Emotions drive people to share their experiences with others, which will grow your business by increasing awareness and word-of-mouth referrals. If your customers are experiencing strong emotions when interacting with you — whether positive or negative — they’ll be more likely to remember those feelings later when making purchase decisions.
This means that a focus on emotional design is an important part of the customer experience. It can help you create a positive image and improve the overall experience for your customers.
Emotional design helps build trust by creating a heightened emotional connection between you and your customers, making them more likely to purchase from you. This connection can also help increase loyalty among existing customers by reinforcing their positive feelings toward your company or product line.
Research shows that consumers who feel positively about a company are more likely to recommend it on social media platforms as well as through word-of-mouth recommendations. This would mean there is less need for advertising expenses because your emotional design increases brand awareness without additional marketing investment required!
The future of emotional design for you and your organization is in your hands. Start by using data as a tool for understanding what people say they feel and how their emotions affect their behavior and decision-making processes. Once you’ve got that information at hand, use technology (like chatbots, for instance) to improve how customers interact with each other and with businesses like yours — then measure the results.
If you want to deliver an Ultimate Customer Experience® so your organization gains more repeat and referral business, consider the importance of designing how you can enhance the emotional engagement that a customer has with you with as much passion and precision as you seek to delineate their customer journey.
Pre-order my new book, “The Ultimate Customer Experience ®” for your company and receive some extraordinary benefits! Contact us for more information.
It’s hard to describe how nervous I was to meet with my new speech coach. My career was ascending rapidly, but Ron Arden was the coach to the speaking heavyweights — Brian Tracy, Ken Blanchard, Patricia Fripp, and many more. I had invested an amount that made us really stretch for his insights — and now it was the time for our first meeting at his home in San Diego.
As our meeting began, he asked a simple question: “Tell me something that would describe your speaking style.” Being sincere and transparent are qualities essential to me.
I told him, “I speak from my heart.”
“Oh Lord,” Arden replied, “not another one. Not another speaker saying they ‘speak from the heart.’” I didn’t understand. What could possibly be wrong with doing that for your audience?
“Let’s say your wife calls right before you go onstage to tell you that your son has stumbled from his bike and broken his arm. They’re on the way to the ER. Do you really want to speak from the heart now? What if you get a call from your attorney and your business partner has embezzled thousands from you? You’re going to share your heart with the audience?”
He continued, “The audience is not your therapist. If you’re a professional speaker, you work for them. That means you WRITE your presentation from your heart. But when it comes time to deliver for your customer…you SPEAK from your SKILL. Our job is to develop your skills.”
It was one of the most significant examples of coaching I could imagine.
We all need coaches.
Ron Arden’s coaching was a turning point for me. He showed me that it’s essential to be genuine and sincere when speaking from the heart but that you also need to have the skill to back it up. Public speaking is not about sharing your feelings with the audience; it’s about delivering a message to help them achieve their goals. Coaching is critical to advanced success in any field. Whether you’re a CEO, a manager, or an individual contributor, having a coach can help you take your career to the next level.
Public speaking can be a daunting task for many. However, with the help of a good coach, it can be an enriching experience. Coaching is critical to advanced success, as it helps speakers develop their skills and deliver effective and engaging presentations. To be a successful public speaker, it is crucial to write speeches from the heart — but speak from your skill when it is time to deliver your presentation. With the help of a good coach, you can learn how to do this and become a more successful public speaker.
If you want to advance your speaking skills, I’d love to help. I’m only taking six people for a 90-day sprint to speaking success. As of this writing, two of those slots were filled. Just connect with me here for more information.
And, if now isn’t the time but the idea of speech coaching is something you’d like to pursue, just let me know. I will gladly recommend a top-flight coach who can help you achieve your goals.
It’s time for you to become a distinctive speaker!
Does positive thinking really create better results?
When my late wife, Sheri, and I were first married, her father took me aside to give me advice I’ve never forgotten: “Think big, and you will be.”
My great friend, Dr. Tony Alessandra, related that when he was working on his Ph.D. at Georgia State University, his professor was Dr. David Schwartz — known for the popular book, “The Magic of Thinking Big.”
And the late, great Zig Ziglar wrote and constantly spoke on the importance of how we think, telling his audiences and readers that we all need a “checkup from the neck up.”
It begs two questions: First, does how we think actually impact our results?
And second, if our thinking does make a difference, how can we change it to improve our attitude and, subsequently, our actions?
Most motivational psychologists suggest the answer to the first question is a resounding “Yes!” Just as exercise strengthens our physical muscles, so do our thoughts shape and mold our minds. Our attitudes are a direct result of our predominant thoughts.
For example, the Mayo Clinic lists these personal results from a positive approach:
Increased life span
Lower rates of depression
Lower levels of distress and pain
Greater resistance to illnesses
Better psychological and physical well-being
Better cardiovascular health and reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease and stroke
Reduced risk of death from cancer
Reduced risk of death from respiratory conditions
Reduced risk of death from infections
Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress
When it comes to business, Harvard says, “Research shows that when people work with a positive mindset, performance on nearly every level—productivity, creativity, engagement—improves.”
Those are powerful results! To achieve them for yourself, start by asking:
What attitude do you want to have?
What kind of person do you want to be?
And remember: the attitude we display toward others is just a reflection of the attitude we have toward ourselves.
It all starts with self-acceptance: liking yourself just the way you are — warts and all. From that foundation, everything else follows. It will be difficult to like others if you don’t like yourself. If you don’t think highly of yourself, it will be tough to think highly of others. It’s hard to have a positive attitude when you’re trying to cover up a negative self-image.
Three steps to improving your self-concept are:
Choose your attitude. We need to start teaching students (and it’s never too late to learn) that attitude is one of the few aspects of life over which we have total control. If you decide to have a bad attitude, you can make yourself and everyone around you miserable with your negativity. If your choice is on the other end of the spectrum, you can have a stellar approach to what life puts in your path.
I promise that you know someone who has more difficulties than you and that has a better attitude than the one you currently possess. Conversely, I’ll bet you also know someone who has it better than your current situation who is still miserable and unappreciative.
Decide what kind of person you want to be. For example, my wife, Tammy, decided she wanted to be more involved in our community and give more to others because of her gratitude for our blessings. After making those decisions, she has become highly involved with a program called Cup of Hope that helps feed and inspire homeless men and women here in Las Vegas. Many people experiencing difficulties have been helped through her volunteering — and Tammy has grown into more of the person she desires to be by first deciding precisely what she wants.
Determine the price you’re willing to pay to achieve it. It’s long been called the “Coke bottle philosophy of life: No deposit. No return.” I heard a speaker once say the only time you ever get handed millions for nothing is if you win the lottery. I had to disagree — even to win the lottery, you have to go to the store and spend the money to purchase a ticket.
The question you must ask yourself is, what price are you willing to pay to achieve what you want? I can say that I want to write a book — but if I fail to put the seat of my pants in the seat of a chair and write…instead of watching television or going to a ball game…then it’s all just empty talk!
“Our attitude toward life determines life’s attitude towards us,” wrote the legendary Earl Nightingale.
My friend Brian Tracy has said, “You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.”
The second question — how do we change our thinking? — is just as important as the first.
Several speaker pals of mine use a critical quote: “In software programming, it’s popular to say GIGO: garbage in, garbage out. However, when it comes to how we think and how our minds work, it’s GIGS: garbage in, garbage stays.”
Just as there are exercise programs to get our physical bodies in shape, so too are there mental exercises we can perform to “strengthen our minds.” Here are some suggestions:
Read books and articles that inspire you and reinforce positive thinking. (Some of my favorites are the previously mentioned “The Magic of Thinking Big” by David Schwartz, “The Power of Positive Thinking” by Norman Vincent Peale, and “Atomic Habits” by James Clear.)
Find a mentor or coach who can help you stay focused on your goals and think positive thoughts.
Hang around people who are positive and upbeat. I’m always amazed at how my attitude improves when I’m around people like that!
Practice gratitude. Every day, make it a point to think of five things you’re grateful for in your life. You’ll be surprised at how this simple exercise can change your attitude for the better.
Make it a habit to think and speak words of encouragement to yourself throughout the day. Stop beating yourself up over every minor issue that doesn’t turn out perfectly.
Give yourself regular “attitude checkups.” At the end of each day, ask yourself how you did in terms of staying positive and keeping a good attitude. If you slip up, don’t beat yourself up — just resolve to do better tomorrow.
Just as it’s essential to take care of our physical health, it is just as vital to regularly monitor our mental and emotional well-being. When we pay attention to our thoughts and attitude, we can ensure we’re thinking positive thoughts that will lead to positive actions and results.
Resolve to give yourself a daily “checkup from the neck up” — and watch your life become more distinctive!
